[At-Large] Fwd: ATLASIII Participation

Sun Jul 14 00:08:09 UTC 2019

Karl, I am very grateful that you can see what the ALAC is trying to do
with regards to ATLASIII - developing a roadmap for the future.

I cannot imagine that ALAC and At-Large is going to miraculously change
overnight when it has been perceived that we made no positive impacts from
our previous Summits. However, this time I believe that we are truly
attempting to offer an event where participants can get a better
understanding not only of why it is important we take the end-users
perspective to all discussions that take place in ICANN, but also why it is
important that we all share common messages to minimise the confusion that
people have about At-Large. This is being supported already by the weekly
CPWG meetings and members of this WG who are already committed to this
model.

I am thankful that the Board made the decision to reduce the ATLAS funding,
and made us change the way we view Summits and what should aim to achieve.
This has made us also look not only at what we should do, but also how we
should go about doing it.

Evan is correct, we are not providing a SUMMIT in the traditional sense.
This was something that had to change with the reduced funding and thus the
reduced number for whom we could offer travel sponsorship.  We have
retained the name ATLAS this time because it is still a gathering of
At-Large members.

However, the reductions forced us to deal with challenges, especially with
regards to our selection process and the programme.  One of the positives
that has come out of this is that the ideas for the development of both
emerged from discussions with our ATLAS volunteers. The selection process
came about through some robust discussion by the members which was endorsed
by the five representatives of the ALAC Leadership Team.  Even though there
are still the inevitable complaints about inequities, the majority of those
who were selected, are looking at this as an opportunity to learn more
about At-Large and to work on its behalf in the future. This is a primary
goal for this ATLAS - the work for these participants will not end with
ATLAS in Montreal. There is an expectation of continued engagement even
after ATLAS - in their regions, in At-Large and in ICANN.  This is where we
see that ICANN will get value out of this event.

Because this is a new experience for us, we are still finding our way, but
I thank the Staff and the Selection Committee for the hard work they
contributed to the selection of those ATLAS participants that ICANN will
sponsor for the ATLAS. The ATLAS programme will be more than "just capacity
building". The five pre-application modules were to ensure that there was
at least a benchmark that had been achieved by all. And while they were
basic for many of our experienced members, it was important that everyone
was at least starting on the same page, albeit at different levels.

The proposed ATLAS programme will require this knowledge as the groups
become involved in the main activity which I believe will help them not
only learn more about how At-Large thinking fits into that of the rest of
ICANN but also what all the discussions mean to us as end-users.  This is
the gap of learning we want to close for those newer members of the ATLAS
group, supported by our more experienced participants. There is no way you
could offer the same level of learning on a webinar and you wouldn’t be
able to encourage as much individual participation as will be possible at
this event.

Our greatest numbers of participants are justifiably coming from our
underdeveloped regions. Evan's complaints that there are few NARALO members
in the ATLAS, yet they are the best served of all the regions with regards
to ongoing capacity building and updating on latest issues - check out the
Community Skype chat just about every week. I thank NARALO members for
opening up the opportunity for other less advantaged At-Large members to
attend.

I am looking forward not only to what we will achieve at our ATLAS but the
new thinking we can inject into our RALOs and our regions and the work that
these selected participants will contribute to our At-Large of the future.

My 2c

Maureen

On Sun, Jul 14, 2019 at 7:24 AM Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:

> I agree with your dim assessment in many ways, but not all.
>
> There is something that the ALAC can do, and relatively easily.
>
> The issue of naming is beginning to move beyond the domain name system -
> there will be (and are) issues of naming of "topics" for IoT networking;
> there are issues in cloud computing of entities as they split, move, and
> merge; etc.
>
> Now on one hand there is a lot of technological issues in there - which
> are better left to the IETF and similar groups.
>
> On the other hand there are major non-technical lessons to be learned from
> ICANN of what ought to be done in the world of governance including issues
> of whether-or-not-to-govern, what-to-do, what-not-to-do, ownership
> information access (the whois issue again), etc.
>
> The ALAC of all the bodies in ICANN, is in the best position to step back
> and give an unbiased (at least, commercially unbiased) assessment and
> roadmap for that future.
>
>     --karl--
>
>
> On 7/13/19 2:46 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
>
> As ICANN enters a period of austerity while it panics its way to
> re-opening the gTLD floodgates, ALAC is at a crossroads. Ridiculed wherever
> it is not written off for its navel-gazing and complete ineffectiveness at
> bringing forth any useful input unique to end users, ALAC struggles for
> legitimacy whether it knows it or not. No wonder ATLAS 3 was so poorly
> funded; ICANN suspects that nothing useful (for its purposes) will come out
> of the current direction of yet more process and more capacity building.
> They think it's a waste of money so they give the minimum they can get away
> with. Who can blame them?
>
> ALAC had the chance to prove them wrong this time and to do something
> different, to take the time necessary to have the mortally necessary debate
> within ALAC of how it can be relevant to ICANN and revisit how to serve its
> bylaw-stated mission. It needed to counter the awful external ALAC review
> with a thoughtful internal one.
>
> But no.
>
> Based on the published objectives of ATLAS 3
> <https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/71605234/ATLASIII%20Overview%20-%206%20Feb.png?version=1&modificationDate=1549471752000&api=v2>,
> we are in for more of the same:
>
>    - Leadership Development: another way to say "capacity building",
>    training that could be easily be done by webinars and/or the same CBT used
>    to deliver "what is ICANN" that would be accessible by anyone, not just the
>    60 attendees
>
>
>    - Programming: what are the tasks? "Define and structure", "Develop
>    meeting processes". And the outcomes of programming? Reports, video
>    interviews, and "fully functional next generation leaders".
>
> IOW, continued navel gazing that seems to be focused most on the
> succession plans of existing leadership. Policy doesn't even get lip
> service, the word isn't mentioned once.
>
> Nothing in the objectives points to how ALAC can actually work better to
> understand what end users need from ICANN and then to communicate those
> needs to the greater community. So why not stop calling it a Summit and
> call it what it is -- Leadership training? Probably because, presented that
> way, it wouldn't have been funded. Let's just say it's unlikely there will
> be an ATLAS 4 once ICANN sees how its money was spent this time.
>
> - Evan
>
>
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